The Gray Lady's Shame

September 17, 2007

I have often stated that liberals control the three most important institutions which influence opinion in this nation: The educational institutions, the courts, and the news media. The prime example of the news media's capitulation to liberal control is the New York Times newspaper, whose nickname is the "Gray Lady."

The Times own ombudsman (whose responsibility is to the public, rather than to the newspaper), Daniel Okrent, wrote an article in the summer of 2004 critical of his newspaper. He concluded that the Times did have a liberal bias, and used as examples its liberal coverage of social issues, particularly homosexual marriage.

Following the Jayson Blair affair (in which Times reporter Blair was caught making up stories which were published as hard news, Bill Keller, the Executive Editor of the Times asked a committee of Times employees to investigate and report back to him. In part the report read, "Nothing we recommend should be seen as endorsing a retreat from tough-minded reporting of abuses of power by public or private institutions. In part because the Times' editorial page is clearly liberal, the news pages do need to make more effort not to seem monolithic."

Amazing. The Times own employees admitted what the whole world has known for years: "The Times' editorial page is clearly liberal." They then went on to say that since the editorials are so thoroughly liberal, it was not necessary to put a liberal spin on each and every news story the paper prints.

The New York Times was founded in 1851. Published daily, it is the largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States. It received its nickname, the "Gray Lady," because of its sober, stolid style and appearance. It was once a great newspaper. In fact, over the years it won 95 Pulitzer Prizes. But in its old age it has become nothing more than a mouthpiece for the radical left.

Its editorial pronouncements are consistently anti-Christian, anti-conservative, anti-American, pro-abortion, pro-homosexual marriage, and pro-socialist. In fact, many of its editorials seem to have been taken directly from the pages of Pravda, once the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the USSR.

Never has the Times behaved more shamefully than this past Monday, September 10, 2007. On that day it ran a full-page ad accusing General David Petraeus of being a traitor for doing his job fighting the War of Terror. This is equivalent to a national newspaper calling General Dwight Eisenhower a traitor on the eve of D-Day. The uproar would have been massive.

But not one Democrat presidential candidate has spoken out against this outrageous display of partisanship from a newspaper that is supposed to fairly and accurately report the news. Ed Koch, former Mayor of New York (and a Democrat himself), has called the Democrat candidates "Cowards" for not condemning the ad.

Of course, even if they were inclined to do the decent thing and defend the courageous and honorable General, they would be afraid of having the same venom spewed on them if they dared to speak up. For the ad was run by the infamous radical left-wing organization MoveOn.org. MoveOn was formed in 1998 to support the Clintons during their numerous felonies and scandals, staring with Clinton's impeachment.

MoveOn's support for the Clintons evolved into helping them raise millions for their many legal battles and distracting attention from Whitewater, Travel-Gate, the Monica Lewinsky affair, Hillary's ill-gotten gains in the futures markets, and the illegal use of FBI files to spy on political rivals. Today its primary goal is to slander any decent patriotic American who takes a stand they don't like.

The full-page ad the Times allowed MoveOn to run was titled, "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?" I guess they thought the play on words was cute. Anyone who knows this General who has served our nation heroically for 33 years, and knows about the cowardly MoveOn people, realizes that the ad is anything but cute; it is pitiful.

The thing that has millions of Americans so upset is that the Gray Lady gave a "family discount" to it fellow socialist organization, MoveOn. Believe it or not, MoveOn paid only ONE THIRD of the normal rate for the full-page ad, which would sell to any conservative organization for $181,692. MoveOn paid a paltry $65,000.

Anyone who still thinks the New York Times is not the official newspaper of the Democrats and Socialists of America is deaf, dumb and blind. And I don't mean dumb as in "mute." I mean dumb as in stupid, ignorant, misguided and moronic.

Anyone who subscribes to the Times should immediately cancel their subscription and tell them why they are doing so. Advertisers should pull their ads, and tell the Gray Lady that she will get no more of the advertising dollars until she starts reports ALL the news, not just the news the Democratic National Committee tells them to print.

By the way, General Petraeus was confirmed for his post by a Senate vote of 81 to 0. That means the sames Democrats who placed this ad (or ordered it to be placed) voted for General Petraeus after he testified concerning his intentions for waging the War on Terror in Iraq. He has done exactly as he said he would do. Now the same people who voted for him (and by extension for his plan) and slandering him and calling him a traitor.

Almost every day I receive emails from life-long Democrats who tell me they are leaving their party. It is no wonder that this is happening when one considers the shameful way their leaders and their presidential hopefuls have been behaving during this election cycle. Their behavior is a strong indication of the deperation the Democrats feel as party loyalty wanes. They know that if they don't regain the White House in 2008, they probably never will.

Tom Barrett is the Founder and Publisher of www.ConservativeTruth.org. He has written thousands of articles that have been republished in national newspapers and on hundreds of websites, and is a frequent guest on radio and television shows. His unique viewpoint on social, moral and political issues from a Biblical worldview have resulted in invitations to speak at churches, conferences, Money Shows, colleges, and on TV (including the 700 Club). Tom is also an expert speaker and writer on the subject of Biblical Finance, & is the Founder www.ChristianFinancialConcepts.com.